AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional — Question 813

A Solutions Architect is redesigning an image-viewing and messaging platform to be delivered as SaaS. Currently, there is a farm of virtual desktop infrastructure
(VDI) that runs a desktop image-viewing application and a desktop messaging application. Both applications use a shared database to manage user accounts and sharing. Users log in from a web portal that launches the applications and streams the view of the application on the user's machine. The Development Operations team wants to move away from using VDI and wants to rewrite the application.
What is the MOST cost-effective architecture that offers both security and ease of management?

Answer options

• A. Run a website from an Amazon S3 bucket with a separate S3 bucket for images and messaging data. Call AWS Lambda functions from embedded JavaScript to manage the dynamic content, and use Amazon Cognito for user and sharing management.
• B. Run a website from Amazon EC2 Linux servers, storing the images in Amazon S3, and use Amazon Cognito for user accounts and sharing. Create AWS CloudFormation templates to launch the application by using EC2 user data to install and configure the application.
• C. Run a website as an AWS Elastic Beanstalk application, storing the images in Amazon S3, and using an Amazon RDS database for user accounts and sharing. Create AWS CloudFormation templates to launch the application and perform blue/green deployments.
• D. Run a website from an Amazon S3 bucket that authorizes Amazon AppStream to stream applications for a combined image viewer and messenger that stores images in Amazon S3. Have the website use an Amazon RDS database for user accounts and sharing.

Correct answer: D

Explanation

Amazon AppStream 2.0 allows the organization to stream the desktop applications directly to a web browser, eliminating the need to manage a complex VDI farm or undergo a complete application rewrite. Hosting the web interface on Amazon S3 and storing images in S3 provides highly durable and cost-effective storage with minimal administrative effort. Using Amazon RDS to manage user accounts ensures a highly secure, managed relational database environment that integrates easily with the streamed application.